American History: Where Trouble Comes

Whether you are an officer flying above enemy territory in an assault helicopter, or a news reporter covering the story of a military attack, the POV, or point of view, from which an event is experienced determines to a large degree how the story is told. With a situation as controversial at the Vietnam War, it is no surprise that there were rarely consistent perspectives on the events taking place in Vietnam. Of course, is it simply human nature to skew situations or events to represent them in your favor, however, when it comes to fatal battles being fought between two world countries, it is important that the situations are represented as accurately as possible. The world deserves to be able to formulate their opinions regarding an event such as the Vietnam War, and in order to do that properly, an accurate, consistent, truthful “POV” is necessary. Combat films such as The Sounds of Iwo Jima and westerns such as The Alamo and Fort Apache worked in favor for the United States because the stories they told reinforced Americans and their ideas about themselves as people. Many of the stories and tales told during World War II illuminated America’s excellence when it came to democracy and liberty, and were told with the intentions of boosting American moral. When it comes to the early Saturday morning of March 16, 1968, however, the perspective from which the story is told could be the determining factor between American support and sympathy for the Vietnamese village of Son My. The point of view from those at ground level is completely different from those of American soldiers 1000 feet in the sky. So how are we to approach films that wish to portray history accurately when there are so many contradicting perspectives within every circumstance? The problem with this portrayal through film is that even at their best, filmic realism is...

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...In reality, many left with nothing. Slavery on the other hand was cheaper than hiring indentured servants, and there were no legal obligations to the slave owner, as they would have to an indentured servant. Slaves were basically seen as a property. Since there were no contracts for slaves, the owners were able to keep them for as long as they wish, and sell them at a later time, where as the indentured servants were released when their contract was fulfilled. Not until the mid-seventeenth century, when a substantial commerce in slaves grew between the Caribbean islands and the southern colonies (Text page 57.) Agriculture products such as cotton and tobacco increased the demand for labor, but it was the intensive crop labor of sugar, for which there was a substantial growing market in Europe, to which English planters found it necessary to import laborers.
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...Our history is what defines our character, shapes our social views, and gives us a sense of pride in how far we have come. The trouble with history is that it is presented to us as children through the interpretations of historians and textbook editors. This means that every few generations school children are introduced to "their particular version of America", they focus on different events and ideas from the past, and develop their own way of thinking about our history and the world in general. In "Rewriting AmericanHistory" Frances Fitzgerald describes the differences between history books from her childhood and the newer ones from the nineteen-seventies; the examples show how the changes in content and perspective of junior high school history books affect the student's view of the country and it's annals. The message behind this comparison is that our image of history is shaped by the way it's presented to us early on, which is why different generations of school children develop "their particular version of America."
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primary focus to secure his borders and maintain his sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.
The democratic ideas of the United States and the communist ideas of the Soviet Union were
completely opposed, and "each step taken by one side to enhance its security appeared an
act of provocation to the other.”1
Truman's policy with the Soviet Union was not favored by many Americans, even
liberals of his own party. The Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace warned that the U.S. ...

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p. 3
10/9/2014
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